SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ENCODING LIGHT FIELD IMAGE FILES HAVING DEPTH AND CONFIDENCE MAPS

摘要

Systems and methods configured to store images synthesized from light field image data and metadata describing the images in electronic files and render images using the stored image and the metadata in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. One embodiment includes a processor and memory containing an encoding application and light field image data, where the light field image data comprises a plurality of low resolution images of a scene captured from different viewpoints. In addition, the encoding application configures the processor to: synthesize a higher resolution image of the scene from a reference viewpoint using the low resolution images, where synthesizing the higher resolution image involves creating a depth map that specifies depths from the reference viewpoint for pixels in the higher resolution image; encode the higher resolution image; and create a light field image file including the encoded image and metadata including the depth map.

主权项

1. A system for encoding light field image data as a light field image file, comprising:
a processor; and memory containing an encoding application and light field image data, where the light field image data comprises a plurality of images of a scene captured from different viewpoints; wherein the encoding application directs the processor to:
create a depth map that specifies depths for pixels in a reference image in the plurality of images;create a confidence map for the depth map, where the confidence map indicates the reliability of the depth value for a pixel in the depth map; andencode the reference image; andcreate a light field image file including the encoded image and metadata describing the encoded image, where the metadata includes the depth map and the confidence map.